- Joined
- 5 Feb 2012
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
Hi everyone,
I have a damp problem. I am restoring a ruin in the countryside of Extremedura. It is going well, except when the rain comes (about 3 months per year) the eastern wall becomes very damp. The reason for this is obvious, part of the wall is underground and the earth it beside is inevitably extremely humid as it is a ditch (see diagram below). The wall is drystone mixed with clay with a cement/lime render on the inside. I have scoured the net and it seems the best thing to do normally is to get rid of the ditch and channel the water away from the wall. As you can see in the diagram below this is not feasible. The ditch is enormous and would require renting a digger to fill in and once filled in the wall would be covered with earth almost up to the roof and certianly covering the window. Does anyone have any alternative suggestions?
I thought about reinforcing the inside wall with a second wall of rock/cement with a plastic liner in between the first wall and second wall to stop the damp coming through. Alternatively a second wall of bricks with an enclosed air gap in between the first and second wall in order to stop the damp. I don't mind building a second wall, as the room could do with an extra ledge to put things on, my only concern is that it would not stop the damp coming through. Cement after all attracts water rather than repels it and I'm not sure if a plastic liner or an air void would be effective preventive tool. I could dig the ditch even deeper to stop the damp coming through at such a high point of the wall but this would require a lot of work and would require redoing annually.
Please see the diagram beloiw.
Any suggestions more than welcome.
If all else fails I can just light an enourmous fire every day to blast the damp out which I will probably do anyway to keep out the cold.
LEAO
I have a damp problem. I am restoring a ruin in the countryside of Extremedura. It is going well, except when the rain comes (about 3 months per year) the eastern wall becomes very damp. The reason for this is obvious, part of the wall is underground and the earth it beside is inevitably extremely humid as it is a ditch (see diagram below). The wall is drystone mixed with clay with a cement/lime render on the inside. I have scoured the net and it seems the best thing to do normally is to get rid of the ditch and channel the water away from the wall. As you can see in the diagram below this is not feasible. The ditch is enormous and would require renting a digger to fill in and once filled in the wall would be covered with earth almost up to the roof and certianly covering the window. Does anyone have any alternative suggestions?
I thought about reinforcing the inside wall with a second wall of rock/cement with a plastic liner in between the first wall and second wall to stop the damp coming through. Alternatively a second wall of bricks with an enclosed air gap in between the first and second wall in order to stop the damp. I don't mind building a second wall, as the room could do with an extra ledge to put things on, my only concern is that it would not stop the damp coming through. Cement after all attracts water rather than repels it and I'm not sure if a plastic liner or an air void would be effective preventive tool. I could dig the ditch even deeper to stop the damp coming through at such a high point of the wall but this would require a lot of work and would require redoing annually.
Please see the diagram beloiw.
Any suggestions more than welcome.
If all else fails I can just light an enourmous fire every day to blast the damp out which I will probably do anyway to keep out the cold.
LEAO
